Back on the Bank!

Tuesday 26th.May 2020

Paddlesworth, Pollard, Peg 43

Peg 43, Pollard
The margin bait was under-arm chucked to the right, behind the bushes.

14.15

At last I’m back out on the bank giving it my best shot. There has been a change of seasons since I last fished, from Winter to Spring to Summer. There are reports spawning has been taking place off the Road Bank; unusual, generally it's the other end in the shallows. Whatever, I'm here and loving it. 

Swim choice has been random I'm afraid. I've seen fish at both ends of the lake so I assume the Top End shoal and the Bottom End Shoal are active but are they feeding? Apparently not. Members report nothing out this week although fish were caught last week, the first after Lockdown.

My choice is based on previous observation. I fished P 30 opposite on many occasions last year and as I looked across to this bank I often thought what a good peg to fish in the warm weather it would be. The margins are deep and the carp are known to patrol them so a bait fished close in should score as well as anywhere. 

Since I'm starting completely from scratch again I took the liberty of contacting my spies - Nobby and Ryan-the-Bait-Man. Ryan’s advice was to fish no more than 10 feet deep and this is where my right-hand rod is an underarm effort down the margin with half a dozen spods of the usual feed over the top. The centre and left-hand rods are fished on Fox adjustable zigs, the Centre Rod two feet under and the Left Hand rod between seven and eight feet down.

Fox Zig Aligner Kit.
You get the Zig Float, the swivel and sleeve to connect to the hook-length, and the boom to connect to the lead.

The usual shoals of Bream are cruising along a couple of feet under the surface - but as I write right a Carp is making a vee-pattern with its dorsal as it makes straight towards me!

I tried zigs last year without any success so this year I want to put that right. Although I'm hedging my bets by having a bottom bait out I do not expect it to do anything until the hours of darkness. At least having just one bait on the bottom limits the torture imposed by the continual attentions of the Bream!

Lead Clip System. Completely standard - no frills.
The rig is a fluorocarbon 'D' Rig.

16.40

Laying in my pit cooking like a chicken. Man it's hot, and they give hotter for tomorrow. With air pressure as high as this I think it's largely a waste of time bottom fishing. The zigs are probably the best bet if a take is to be forthcoming at all. There’s a smidgen of cloud so I hope it's enough to at least make being here bearable.

I've just found a cool place in amongst the trees to recline in my chair. That's better.

Interestingly I found these in the margins of the peg - Zebra Mussels.
If they can not find anything to fix themselves to, they fix themselves to each other. There were many colonies of these in only inches of water.
Carp Food!...

18.00 

Recast the bottom bait rod (The usual Maxinut Wafter with a small piece of Cork to give added buoyancy) back onto the margin spot and chucked a top up of six spods of feed over it. If the Bream move in then this will have to be replenished. The question then becomes "do I top up again and risk keeping the Bream on my spot or do I let them eat it all and bugger off?"

18.40 

It seems to have gone completely dead right now. Normally I'd expect to see activity at this stage of the evening. I wonder if the bow waving I saw earlier was related to spawning, or pre-spawning behaviour? They've already had one go at it - but stopped because there were a few days of cold weather. Could be they’re ready to get going again. Not much good trying to catch them if they're in that sort of mood.

19.40

Blimey! I've just had my ticket and ID checked. This is a first, never once during the whole of last year did this happen. I wonder what it is about Lockdown they feel the need? I suppose its because the gate is permanently open to ensure members don’r have to touch it. They're probably worried poachers might sneak in. Good security though. Not all clubs are open for fishing at this point. This is certainly true of Sittingbourne club.

21.30

Getting dark now. A light breeze blowing up the lake towards the top end. Still very very quiet. Expecting Bream any minute.

Nightfall over Pollard.
Not an unpleasant night but I would have preferred to have been woken by a Carp!

Wednesday, 27th of May 2020

01.00

Just had a massive drop back on the left-hand rod, the zig set at 7 to 8 feet down. I lifted into it but there was nothing there…

07.30

Recast the left-hand rod. Had a lot of trouble releasing the pop up from the zig float, taking four attempts to do so. My normal method is to fix the bait to the float with dissolving foam but on this trip I'd forgotten to bring it. Duh! I always forget something!

Managed to rig the arrangement with some PVA tape, this seems a lot less effective. 

It's as dead as a dodo out there!

The Daisies are out. I love the Spring and all the new life it brings with it.

09.00 

I'm just thinking what to do. The lake is very quiet and I currently think there is no chance of a fish. My plan was to fish two nights but at the moment I cannot see the point. I've been down the route of hanging on in the hope things will change so often, and experience tells me they never do. I think my best choice is to come back next week when conditions may be different.

Spawning time is always a difficult part of the year to try and catch carp. Their minds are on matters other than feeding and when weather conditions are counter-productive it makes the job seem twice as difficult.

End of Session